Gone Fishin’…

I be skippin’ chemo and done gone to da ocean!

Yesterday, I got some pictures from our friend Maribeth. She had invited friends from our South Dallas Bible study, Sarah Mae and her daughter Joyce, to her lakehouse in Tool to go fishing. I was so dang jealous when I saw the pics that I decided about 9 o’clock that Linc and I needed in on the action today. So we got up, picked up and packed up. And persuaded Gigi to join us (that was easy). By 9:30 we were headed to Cedar Creek to surprise G-Granny (short for Great-Granny) and Pinky. It seems to me that everybody with color has a nickname. I asked G-Granny why that is and she explained that ‘back in the ol’ days, black people done name their kids after whate’er they saw when they babies be born … Like a rabbit. Or, like me and my baby-daddy, we named her Pinky because she was so big and red when she be born. And we still call her Pinky. And, another one, she came out lookin’ all black like black pepper and we done call her pepper. Or Peppy fo short. And me, they call me ‘black gal.’ I stupidly said, ‘why’d they call you that?’ And she said, ‘because I be black. And that be all good cuz my daddy told me black be beautiful.’ Sho nuff. She be black alright. And she be beautiful to me.

This is my first chemo-free Wednesday since first of March (every other week on these new drugs) and I can’t think of any more awesome place to be. Granted, most places are better than a hospital. Though, truthfully, I’ve actually come to enjoy my easy, restful Wednesdays with Scott. Though nothin’ is quite as easy or restful or fun or entertaining as the lake – with a good breeze and great friends. They are my happy place.

And though they are my happy place, apparently, I’m not theirs. I was pretty excited about surprising them. They had called me on their way to the lake, all super excited, to tell me they were on their way and they were praying for me and love me. And boy do I love them. And G-Granny was fussin at me that she ‘ain’t seen Linc in too long and he be missin her’ so I thought she’d be excited for us to surprise her. But apparently I’m nowhere near as fun as fishing and catfish. When we arrived, they hollered and screamed from the dock – but never left the dock or their multiple poles. They were so proud to show off their catch. They pulled up a stringer with some of the tiniest catfish I’d ever seen. They told Maribeth, who thought they would throw the little ones back, ‘they ain’t small – that’s 2 sandwiches!’ When they arrived at the lake, they screamed, ‘this ain’t no pond, it’s an ocean!’ They are loving life. And I’m loving life watching them love life. They have been on the dock since 7am and only came in for lunch. They have 30 catfish. Actually, they just said, ‘let’s go with 35.’ True fisherwomen. But apparently ‘they done slacked up on bitin’ so things have gotten a little slow. Right now, I’m having to stay focused on cranking out this quick post with my eyes down while they manhandle this poor catfish to get a hook out. They just told Gigi they can tell that fishin ain’t her thing. I think it had something to do with the way she was avoiding eye contact with them and the fish during the wrangling of that hook. And as I type, G-Granny is running to her pole (carefully since she can’t swim) and yelling, ‘I got the river monster!’

So there’s my Wednesday report. Catfish are better than chemo! And, for the curious, that river monster she caught be about 6″ of catfish. Not a river monster. Im not even sure it’s 2 sandwiches.